Let’s take a closer look at the conversation. |
Do you remember how the civil servant says, |
"Your e-mail, please." |
Votre e-mail, s'il vous plaît. |
Let’s start with the word, e-mail, meaning "e-mail." E-mail (Enunciated). E-mail. |
In French, all nouns have grammatical gender and are either singular or plural. E-mail is masculine and singular — a fact that determines the form of other words in the sentence. |
Note, the official term for e-mail in French is courriel, which is masculine. Courriel (enunciated). Courriel. However, e-mail is more widely used in everyday speech. |
Before this is votre, meaning "your" when addressing one person in a formal context. Votre (clearly enunciated). Votre. |
Note votre fundamentally means "your" when addressing more than one person, but it’s also a formal way to say "your" when speaking to one person directly using formal French. |
All together, it’s votre e-mail. "Your e-mail." Votre e-mail. |
Last is s’il vous plaît, meaning "please." S’il vous plaît (enunciated). S’il vous plaît. |
All together, it’s Votre e-mail, s’il vous plaît. "Your e-mail, please." |
Votre e-mail, s’il vous plaît. |
Remember this request. You’ll hear it again later. |
Let’s take a closer look at the response. |
Do you remember how Karen says, |
"My e-mail is karen@innolang.com." |
Mon e-mail est karen@innolang.com (ka a erre eu enne arobase innolang point com). |
Do you remember how to say "e-mail?" |
E-mail. "e-mail." E-mail. |
Before this is mon, "my." Mon (Enunciated). Mon. |
Mon is masculine singular to agree with e-mail. |
All together it’s mon e-mail. "My e-mail" Mon e-mail. |
Next is est, "is," as in "my e-mail is." Est (enunciated). Est |
Est is from the verb être, meaning "to be." Être. |
Together, it’s Mon e-mail est… "My e-mail is.…" Mon e-mail est… |
Next is Karen’s e-mail address: karen@innolang.com (ka a erre eu enne arobase innolang point com). |
Note how Karen says her e-mail address. |
First is Karen’s name spelled out. ka, a, erre, eu, enne |
Next is the "at sign," which is arobase in French. Arobase (enunciated). Arobase. |
After this is the domain name, innolang, pronounced in French. Innolang. |
Next is point, "dot." Point (enunciated). Point. |
And last is com. "Com" pronounced in French. Com (enunciated). Com. |
All together, it’s Mon e-mail est karen@innolang.com (ka a erre eu enne arobase innolang point com). |
"My e-mail is karen@innolang.com." |
Mon e-mail est karen@innolang.com (ka a erre eu enne arobase innolang point com). |
The pattern is |
Mon e-mail est {E-MAIL ADDRESS}. |
"My e-mail is {E-MAIL ADDRESS}. |
Mon e-mail est {E-MAIL ADDRESS}. |
To use this pattern, simply replace the {E-MAIL ADDRESS} placeholder with your e-mail address. |
Imagine your e-mail address is prune@innolang.com (pé erre u enne eu arobase innolang point com enunciated). pé erre u enne eu arobase innolang point com |
Say, |
"My e-mail is prune@innolang.com." |
Ready? |
Mon e-mail est prune@innolang.com (pé erre u enne eu arobase innolang point com). |
"My e-mail is carla@innolang.com." |
Mon e-mail est prune@innolang.com (pé erre u enne eu arobase innolang point com). |
When giving your e-mail address in French, if the domain name is well-known, you don’t need to spell it out. For example, if your e-mail address has the domain, "gmail," as in "gmail.com," you can just say, gmail. |
Outside of well-known domain names, however, it will usually be necessary to spell it out. |
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